Andy Donato 1937-2026

With notes from The Toronto Sun.

Andy Donato inside his studio in 2015

It is with great sadness that I learned that long time Toronto Sun cartoonist Andy Donato has died at 89 while sustaining a head injury during a fall while playing a round at his beloved Hunt Club golf course

Donato was born on January 13, 1937, in Scarborough. 

His father, Luciano Donato, was an Italian immigrant who came to Toronto via New York in 1922, while his mother, Adelina Benedetti, was born in Canada.

Baltimore Sun passed off as an editorial cartoon an AI-generated image

From the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

The AAEC Board of Directors has written an open letter to the leadership of The Baltimore Sun after it created and posted an AI-generated image it passed off as an editorial cartoon. 

Cathy Wilcox bids a relunctant farewell

 

Cathy Wilcox is ending her run as cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, part of a wider tranche of redundancies at the newspaper group. 

It has been gratifying to see the high level of support and well-wishes the announcment of her retirement has precipitated. 

In addition to a final week of cartoons that made explicit her feelings about several important matters, on her way out she had a word to say on the encroachment of A.I. upon the profession.

Pissing matches

 

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this Bill Brahall cartoon the other day. Here are a few matches:

Cartoonists fear for future of industry with rise of AI-generated illustrations

From Australian Broadcasting News.

The Herald Sun published this AI-generated image of Victorian Premier Ben Carroll

(Australian) cartoonists say they are worried about the future of their craft, as media companies continue to grapple with integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into their industry.

On Wednesday, the Herald Sun newspaper published an AI-generated illustration alongside an article about Victorian Premier Ben Carroll.

The illustration, which was clearly marked by the publisher as being AI generated, depicted Mr Carroll with a pirate's leg scraping barnacles off a ship decorated with former Labor premiers Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews.

Signe Wilkinson Donates Archive to University of Pennsylvania

 From Feridundemir.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson has donated a substantial collection of her political cartoons and working materials to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

The collection includes original drawings, published cartoons, sketches, notes and other materials from Wilkinson’s career. It will be housed in the Annenberg Library Archives, where it will be available for research and teaching. 

The elephants in the room